About Oleg
Oleg Melnikov, a resident of Asheville, NC, is a classically-trained violin teacher and concert violinist . Born into a musical family in the former USSR, Oleg’s father was a professional trombonist and his grandmother was an opera singer. Blessed with perfect pitch, Oleg was six when he began his violin lessons. The first place winner of state and regional awards, Oleg attended the Rachmaninov Conservatory of Music in Rostov-on-Don on a full scholarship.
Oleg performs professionally with various regional orchestras, including the Asheville Symphony, where he is permanent fourth chair, the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra, Symphony of the Mountains (Kingsport, TN), and others. Since 2001 he has maintained an active private studio and taught hundreds of students in Western North Carolina. In addition, many weekends are filled with weddings, studio recordings, and private recitals with his piano trio, Trio Sussurando.
In order to ensure the best fit for both the student and the instructor, Oleg offers a first lesson on a trial basis at his teaching studio in Asheville or online via Zoom or Google Meets or FaceTime video platform, allowing students to meet him and see his teaching methods with no obligation.
Benefits of Learning to play Violin go far beyond than you might think.
Learning how to play violin made a tremendous impact on my life and it might do the same for you. I learned so much more than just playing this incredibly difficult instrument - I was able to obtain life altering skills that I use every day even now, when my violin training is mostly behind me. The value I got out of this training applies not only to violin, but to so many different fields and helps many people get ahead in today's competitive environment even outside of music industry. How does it work you may ask? Allow me to explain..
Learning from mistakes - like nothing else. When I was going through violin training, I was making tons of mistakes (trust me, everyone does) and overcoming my failures taught me a first valuable life lesson - commitment to my choice, my craft, my instrument must be stronger than the disappointment I feel from the mistakes I make. This commitment can be applied to basically everything else - if I were going to become a medical professional, an attorney, an engineer, a scientist, etc., I would apply this very commitment skill that I learned from playing violin and it would always pay off. Persistence.. Nothing trumps good old persistence.
Fear of rejection became not a fear at all, but rather a reality with which musicians live and deal with constantly. I was taught to maintain optimism even if I didn't win a violin competition or didn't pass an audition to a certain orchestra or didn't get yet another gig. Each time I'd get knocked on my a**, I would get up, dust off and try again. Musicians face a remarkable number of rejections regularly - our failure rates is higher than sales professionals or even baseball players. If you're not at the top, you're most likely at the bottom - there is virtually no middle in the music buisness. That makes one pretty resilient if you think about it, which can apply to basically everything (forgive me repeating myself here, I couldn't help it).
Every musician is an athlete. If I quickly learned that if i didn't take good care of my body, there's practically no chance that I would be able to play violin like I wanted to. Maintaining a healthy diet, exercise and practice consistently - religiously - was the only way to be good at this craft. Once again - this can be applied to basically everything. Just think about it.. and take note.
Violin Training transformed my life and it will do the same for you. Let's start the discussion here.
